European countries say they are eager to help reconstruct the war-ravaged country and build bridges with its new leaders.
Some European Union sanctions on Syria will be lifted as part of a broader EU move to help stabilise Damascus after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December, France’s foreign minister says.
EU foreign ministers discussed the matter at a meeting in Brussels on Monday.
“Regarding Syria, we are going to decide today to lift, to suspend, certain sanctions that had applied to the energy and transport sectors and to financial institutions that were key to the financial stabilisation of the country,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on arrival at the meeting in Brussels.
Al-Assad, whose family ruled Syria with an iron fist for 54 years, was toppled by a lightning offensive on December 8, bringing an abrupt end to a devastating 13-year war. The conflict left large parts of Syria’s major cities in ruins and the vast majority of the population living in poverty.
Al-Assad’s use of torture chambers and chemical weapons during the war turned the country into a pariah state.
The United States and the EU introduced a series of crippling sanctions on Syria in 2011, denying Damascus access to capital markets and trade revenues. Western restrictions in effect cut off Syria’s formal economy from the rest of the world.
The EU is now preparing to roll back its sanctions in stages.
Julien Barnes-Dacey, a director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera “there will be a strong sense of conditionality” applied on the lifting of sanctions.
He added that the EU wants to give Syria’s new government financial relief while creating time to determine whether the coalition led by former rebels Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) will evolve in a way that is consistent with human rights and democratic norms.
“The idea is to create the conditions for a positive transition,” Barnes-Dacey said. “But Europeans want to lock in a snap-back option, so that if HTS does not move forward with an inclusive transition, those sanctions can come back into play.”
He also warned that the lifting of sanctions imposed by the US will be crucial to easing Syria’s multiple crises.
“European sanctions by themselves won’t be a fundamental game-changer. … US sanctions are really scaring off foreign finance flows and international business,” he said.
Barnes-Dacey added: “Moving towards reconstruction and redevelopment, you would need US and European action in tandem.”